A Shell
by EloraCooper4
Summary: AU When the government outlaws samesex relationships the group seperates to stay alive. But Collins and Angel realize a life without each other isn't worth living.


Note: I don't own RENT or V for Vendetta or the quote from "Life of Galileo" or my brain apparently. This thing is vague and I meant it to be like that. I only wanted to give snippets cause I don't think that it would pack enough of a punch emotionally if I spelled every scene out. I decided to just use a lens that wasn't so clear. If you've seen V then you know where I got this, if not you'll see.

They tried. They really gave it a shot. Maureen and Joanne did it, even though they suffered everyday. Angel passed by Joanne's room every night and heard the woman sobbing into her pillow. Collins noticed Maureen would fall into a daze that only a good shove would get her out of. But they had done it. And they were alive because of it. Brutally unhappy, but alive. That should have been enough. To know that the other was alive and breathing. That the government didn't get their paws on them taking them away to be seen again. Collins had even stopped his anarchic ways for Angel. He would stay alive without preaching his beliefs. And he would stay alive without her.

The day they outlawed same-sex relationships was almost a death sentence. Collins balked that laws couldn't hold back people's will…then the rumors of the disappearances began. People were being taken in the night. Taken in public while shopping. It made no difference. No one was safe. If the government learned who you slept with and that person just so happened to be the same sex, you were on the list. They would come after you.

So they separated. The couples and the whole group. They split in half. Collins with Mark and Maureen. While Angel went with Mimi, Roger, and Joanne. Even though all of the couples were separated save one, the friends had to stay together. For support. For a reminder that life was worth living, in this society that oppressed every right that they had learned to love. Mark would stay up with Collins as he would pace in frustration. Mimi and Roger would watch over Angel knowing that she secretly resented them for being together. For the government condoning their love and damning hers. It wasn't just the "unpure" love the government condemned. It was also expression. Mark had to burn all of his films and screenplays. Maureen had to burn all of her posters. Joanne had to burn all of her files on human rights cases. Collins had to burn his philosophy books. He would mumble, "Don't talk to other people about our ideas…but it is the truth…but it is forbidden."

They tried. Angel dressed as a man now, leaving even a scarf in a restaurant was enough of a hint for the officers to come. But she never could get enough courage to throw away her clothes. When she needed to remember the good times she would look at them and Joanne would hold her close. Collins would lock himself in his room and scream at the top of his lungs. That was one thing that the government had yet to outlaw. He felt as if a vice was squeezing him to death and he couldn't even cry for help for the people to rise up in opposition. So he would scream and Maureen would stand outside of his door wanting to join in but lacking the courage. All the pain they endured in order to live. But then Collins had decided that living a life in pain wasn't worth living at all. Mark took away all of the sharp objects. Maureen took away all of the pills. Angel would imagine his voice in the night, his breath against her neck. She would run to the door and struggle to get through. Just to see him, she would say. Just to look at him because her pictures had faded from her constant caress. Roger would hold her and bring her back into her room. Mimi would padlock the door with Joanne's help. They couldn't do it. But they tried.

On a night much like the end of the world, they decided to stop it. That if they were taken away, if they were beaten to death, if they were tested like animals, at least the other would be by their side. Mark drove Collins out to an open field. Roger drove Angel and he pulled up next to Mark's car.

"Are you sure about this?" Roger whispered to Angel who was staring out into space. She had faded since the time they meet. The drag was gone, but it was loss of the sparkle in her eye that haunted him. Her love for life was gone. Now she only loved one thing, which the government refused to let her have. He knew the answer that would come out of her mouth before he even asked her. But he had to give her the opportunity to live.

"I've never been more sure of anything in my life." She said to him quietly. Roger nodded and leaned over to hug her close, knowing he would never see her again.

"It's finally here isn't it?" Collins asked Mark in the car quietly, "The doomsday." Mark looked at his friend and held back tears, every day Collins was slipping. His thoughts made less and less sense. He sounded like a philosophy book in another language. At times he would even laugh in confusion of his own words.

Mark leaned over and hugged him. Collins hugged him back and whispered, "Thank you for letting me go." Mark nodded tears in his eyes. He wanted his friends to live forever. But right now, this moment, that was what Angel and Collins were living for. Now more than ever. Collins nodded to Mark and jumped out of the car meeting Roger half way. The two men hadn't seen each other in two years. They just nodded to each other enough said in their faces. Collins got in the driver's seat in the car that held Angel. Roger took a seat next to Mark. Before either pair could say a word to each other they drove away in the fog.

Angel burst into tears just seeing him again. She had also secretly wondered if it all was just a glorious dream in the world of nightmares. Collins covered her hands with one of his looking like he would burst with emotion. But neither said a word to each other until Collins pulled over in an abandoned meat factory. First they hugged and cried in each other's arms. Whispers of "I love you", "I can't live without you." Then hand in hand they ran into the old factory which was a sanctuary that Joanne had set up for them months in advance. When they reached the bed they kissed and made love until their bodies could no longer take the exertion or the pleasure. They feel asleep, legs intertwined and forehead against forehead.

They didn't even care when the governments cronies found them in the morning. Even though the officers all had disgusted looks on their faces, they allowed them to hold hands as they threw the couple into a police car and drove them off to become non-people.

In the back of the cab they whispered quietly to each other, "If you could have done it all over again…would you have done the same?" Angel asked her head on his chest memorizing the beats of his heart.

"No. I would have done it years ago. Years without you…I wasn't living. I lived again for the first time in years last night." Collins said to kissing her one last time as Angel held his face in her hands feeling the same way. The cop slammed the grate of the car but neither of them jumped or responded. They held the kiss for as long as their lungs would allow it.

The dark building cast a long shadow as they parked. One officer took Angel, another took Collins. They were separate again. But their eyes stayed on one another. The bright lights of the testing facility only made them blink for a moment but they kept each other in view. They heard voices saying their names and their charges. Neither answered, Collins searched Angel's eyes for a release. She smiled weakly tears rushing down her face as she nodded. Collins held back a sob as he took his gaze from her and looked at the panel before him. All of his emotions, all of his beliefs exploded from his chest. Ideas finally being expressed. Democracy, Tyranny, Love, Life, Loss. He touched upon them all. The officers couldn't hold him down, he thrashed and punched just so he could be heard. He was quiet for too long. Angel never looked away from him. She was proud, he was standing up for every injustice that was done on their world. Every pain that the government of the people had created and twisted.

More officers came and this time with clubs. They smacked Collins to the ground the wind escaping his lungs. They pulled him up and the woman nodded throwing her hand in the air. The officers dragged him to a door far away while Collins continued to scream the words he had memorized years ago. But as they closed the door on him he did not call out a word of revolution. Instead he called out one last declaration of love for Angel. Then there was a sound of a gun and a falling body. Angel was broken. She slipped out of the hands of the officers and cried. With one last bit of energy she held out her finger and pointed to the panel.

"You did this!" She screamed, "You killed us all. You killed art. You killed expression. You killed beliefs and the truth. You killed him…and the minute you did that…you killed me. You killed me!" The officers pulled her into another room, she was ripe for testing. Perceived as a perfect specimen. But in time she was discarded. On her file it read in red bold letters, "A shell."


End file.
